Year in Review Email Inspiration

Ah, the elusive Year In Review email—likely the most lengthy and difficult one you’ll create all year. 

Unlike your ongoing newsletters, product announcements, or confirmation emails, the Year In Review email is the most personalized one you’ll send, so it’s safe to say the amount of QA time and sheer number of variables involved can make that send button seem a bit more like a dreaded foe than a customer experience goldmine. Luckily, many great Year in Review emails are made much more doable thanks to third-party tech like Movable Ink.

With Fall underway and Q4 right around the corner, it’s time to get a jump on things. How can you plan such an email with confidence?

How can you make it stand out? How can you be sure to make it to the inbox? Let’s talk about it.

Must Have Sections

What has this year meant for your subscribers/customers/user

Loom’s year-in-review emails are the perfect example of this: The screen recording and video-sharing company paints each user a picture of how much time and how many meetings they’ve saved by using their solution.

Why this is a must-have:

Show the people what they would be missing without your tool. Marketing is a year-round sport, and it only gets more intense at the year’s end. Reminding your users why they chose to use your product in the first place is always an effective way to maintain brand love.

Include personalized stats that your readers will care about and have attracted them to give your solution a chance in the first place, and show them their year in review with your brand.

Your company’s biggest milestones or achievements, and why they matter to your reader

A year-in-review email is also your opportunity to celebrate your successes and accomplishments. Share them with your readers and give them the feeling that they were a substantial part of making it possible – and how those will positively impact them in the future!

Later, the social media management platform, sent a fun 2019 recap email that did just that. They shared stats from their users, their most-loved new features released that year, and their new partnerships back then – all are great ways to make their brand even stickier!

Why this is a must-have:

In a world full of options and competing solutions, showing your customers what you do best, how many other people enjoy your product or service, and how it improves their lives is a no-brainer.

Your Best Emails

If you got it – flaunt it! You worked hard on testing and sending multiple broadcasts in the past year, so it’s a good opportunity to share what your audience resonated with more, and why.

Depending on how you measure or define success, you can highlight 3 of your top-performing emails in this section, and let your subscribers revisit those emails (and if there were any promotions that are still relevant there, you might even make second-hand sales!).

Why this is a must-have:

Because marketing, and specifically email, as a year-round effort, it’s always a good idea to use what you already have, and especially what has already worked well! Don’t be afraid to repurpose emails you worked hard on that your subscribers loved getting, repetition is a powerful tool, and you can always use it more!

A word from the founder, a thank you, and sharing your vision for the future

We know that people buy from people they know, like, and trust.

Reminding your readers that there are humans behind the brand who are constantly working on improving the product or solution they’re subscribed to is key.

This is a good part to share with your readers what your brand’s plans are for the upcoming year, and what they can expect moving forward.

Bubble, the no-code app builder, went one step further and opened their “wrapped” email with a personalized video from the founders, a brilliant way to connect your readers to the people behind the scenes (and increase email engagement!)

Why this is a must-have:

We know from the recent webinar with Really Good Emails, featuring Inbox Monster, that more genuine, letter-style messages are definitely in! People want the emotional connection with your brand, so using authenticity and showing the faces behind the brand is key.

* Bonus round
For companies whose brand guidelines allow it: You can also share the worst-performing campaigns, bumps in the road, and unexpected turns, and how you overcame them, made fun of them, or learned from them. Being able to laugh at your mistakes or show growth is highly appreciated!

Quick-fire Tips

With all of the information you have and want to share from this passing year, it can be confusing to compile everything into a single email and make it an effective one.

Here are 5 quick-fire tips to make sure that your year-in-review email is memorable and can even help growing your brand:

1. Make it reader-centric: Your subscribers care about what’s in it for them, and your year-in-review email is no different. Focus on the impact you made for your subscribers in the past year.
2. Make it mobile—and dark-mode-friendly: Remember that most of your subscribers read your emails on their mobile devices, possibly in dark mode. Ensuring that this particular email reads well can help it make the waves you want it to!
3. Help it go viral: Speaking of waves beyond the inbox, there’s one year-in-review email that brands look up to — Spotify Wrapped, the golden standard for the Year-In-Review experience. Use strategic calls to action, smart design, and consider including incentives to entice people to share parts of their (and your!) hard work over the past year with their loved ones.
4. Stick to your brand guidelines: Even though this email is a biggie, remember to stick to your tone of voice and overall aesthetics to convey a holistic brand experience.
5. Divide and conquer: Remember that your year-in-review email is not a part of your holiday sales campaigns. The purpose of this email is a summary of your readers’ experience with your brand in the last 12 months, even though you can include a call to action that entices a sale!